An appropriation of $30 million to move forward on additional planning and design work to replace the Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) has properly been included in the draft budget agreed on by House and Senate leaders. This money must be deployed to get the jail relocated without delay, since delay will only add to the potential costs.
A new jail is necessary for future inmate populations, as the outdated and overcrowded present facility gets increasingly unfit for use — and to allow for OCCC’s relocation away from Kalihi, so that site can be repurposed better for the community’s benefit.
Criminal justice reform advocates have opposed funding the new jail, which was proposed as holding up to 1,405 beds, a 40% increase from the overcrowded jail’s current 982. Instead, they call for a state overhaul of public safety policies and programs throughout the “school-to-prison pipeline,” so that fewer people are sent to jail — and a smaller facility could be planned. Money necessary to complete planning OCCC’s replacement has been held back in previous sessions, with only a minimal $10 million appropriated in 2023. But it’s time to end the logjam.
Changes since 2023 have set the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) — formerly the Department of Public Safety (DPS), which split in 2024 to form DCR and the new Department of Law Enforcement (DLE) — on a path to fully incorporate rehabilitation. And DCR Director Tommy Johnson has said the new jail could build a “first stage” smaller footprint that allows for future expansion — if necessary. Now it’s time to move.
The jail holds people serving short-term sentences of two years or less, as well as those awaiting trial or sentencing. Most of OCCC is about 50 years old, with some parts dating back to 1912, and DCR (formerly operating as DPS) has been lobbying for a better facility for about a decade now.
Changes in the state’s approach to criminal justice are reflected in DCR’s new name and duties, legislated under former Gov. David Ige and taking effect in 2024. Johnson, previously DPS director, was appointed DCR director by Gov. Josh Green, stating that DCR was in a “new era” and would “focus our full attention, resources, and energy on rehabilitation and restoration.”
It must, for the sake of public safety.
Progress in transitioning DCR to a model that reduces recidivity and better prepares incarcerated people for future employment and a healthy, noncriminal life must be monitored by the Legislature and supported by voters, as a productive means of reducing criminal activity and the costs of incarceration.
Advances such as expansion of the kauhale system to provide support and access to resources for people at risk of homelessness — many of whom have cycled through court and jail — are related to this effort. And while more, formal coordination is needed, police, prosecutors, judges and DCR have become involved in discussing the roles played by schools, law enforcement and the judicial system in molding the inmates housed by DCR.
In a related vein, the Legislature, laudably, sent Senate Bill 1442 to the governor this session — a first update to adolescent mental health services law in 50 years. It mandates county-based family guidance centers and “a network of preventative, early identification, screening, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative services,” with free services for youth with severe emotional or behavioral challenges and for “youth who are incarcerated or detained.” The only flaw here is that SB 1442 specifies services must be provided only if federal or state money is available. If Hawaii is serious about keeping youth out of jail, this program should be incorporated as an intervention, and sustainably funded.
A public-safety operations plan that integrates human services, rehabilitation and community involvement with “corrections” is sorely needed. But jails have a purpose in this continuum, too, and a secure, humane facility is required. Let’s get an improved OCCC rebuilt.
